Rally racing is not just about how fast you can ride or drive, it's also about how well you can follow the route.
Daniel Sanders lost his way soon after the start of stage nine of the Dakar Rally, but the defending champion found the right path quicker than the overnight leader, his KTM teammate Luciano Benavides, and has thus reclaimed the lead.
The Australian came second in the stage, four minutes, 35 seconds behind Honda's Tosha Schareina whose navigation skills shone brightest amid the dunes. But with time bonuses taken into consideration "Chucky" ended Tuesday's stage with a 6:24 overall lead over American two-time winner Ricky Brabec, and 7:05 over Argentina's Benavides.
Spain's Schareina, last year's runner-up, is now fourth, 15:28 behind.
"Right at the beginning I checked the roadbook quickly and it was, 'man there's going to be a bit chaos here'," said Sanders.
"A new area we've never raced before. One tricky note and I missed it. Luciano was lost, I was in the dust there as well, Ricky arrived, then Tosha arrived as well, and it was 'there's some time lost'.
"I just missed a left line at about 34km, rest of it was pretty basic and the last part was fast. The dunes were rough with a lot of camel grass and some soft ones. I have few thorns to pull out but pretty happy with the way I rode."
The riders took just under four hours to cover 418km in the first part of the two-day marathon from Wadi ad-Dawasir to Bisha in Saudi Arabia, with an overnight bivouac in the desert.
They had a different route to the cars, which meant the latter were unable to follow their tracks, leading to further chaos on four wheels.
Five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah held the overall lead but became lost enabling four-time winner Carlos Sainz to take over. Then 2014 champion Nani Roma seized the lead at the very end after Sainz also lost his way and was penalised for speeding.
Roma overcame three punctures en route while the stage itself was won by Eryk Gozcal, a feat made even more special by his uncle Michal finishing second nearly eight minutes back. Eryk's father Marek, who heads their family-run team driving Toyotas, was 26th.
Australian Toby Price, a double Dakar winner on motorcycles, was third on the stage for Toyota.
Roma rose from fourth overnight to first overall, 57 seconds ahead of Sainz, followed by Al-Attiyah (1:10 down), Henk Lategan (6:13) and Mattias Ekstrom (11:19).
It's the closest top five this deep into a Dakar, which ends on Saturday.
Price is now seventh, 26.49 off the lead. Having gained 14 minutes on the stage he remains in contention if navigation continues to be tricky.
